Magic History: Fallen Empires Strikes Back
Researching Development
Wizards of the Coast has been pumping out killer Magic expansions for over two decades, but some of the early sets weren't that memorable. These days the R&D team have perfected their methods for coming up with new, interesting, and balanced releases. If we dial back the clock to the early years of Magic, we can find some examples of sets that would probably make contemporary Magic fans cringe.
These days we might get a set like Born of the Gods that isn't considered very good by a lot of people, but even sets like that aren't even close to the worst of the worst. When you ask people what they think the worst Magic set of all time is you get answers like Nemesis, Prophecy, or Homelands, but most people blurt out "Fallen Empires!"
Magic: the Gathering was the world's first collectible card game, so the designers of early sets had to create their own mold. The first design teams didn't have decades of successes to emulate, so sometimes people tried things that just didn't pan out. For instance, Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited contained the Power Nine and the original Dual lands, and designers soon realized that those cards were kind of too good. Most of the powerful cards were taken out of circulation, and the newest expansions started drastically lowering the power level of the average card.
By 1994 the Power Nine were gone from the core set, and expansions began a decline in power level, culminating at a low point that we like to call "Fallen Empires"...
Fallen Empires Strikes Back
Released in November of 1994, Fallen Empires was pretty much doomed from the start. Previous Magic sets had extremely limited print runs because Wizards of the Coast had underestimated consumer demand. Retailers got sick of always getting a small amount of product, so they began to order more of a set than they actually wanted. Retailers expected to only get a fraction of what they said they wanted, so they put in absurdly large orders for Fallen Empires. When Wizards decided to drastically up their production numbers the result was that retailers were flooded with unwanted product.
The set contained 187 cards, but only 102 of those were functionally unique. Fallen Empires experimented with multiple artwork for certain cards, which was received with mixed opinions. Most of the artwork is amazing, but it can make collecting difficult when there are multiple versions of cards to acquire. Remember, Fallen Empires predates collectors numbers, so this just added to the confusion.
Magic primarily had three rarities, but Fallen Empires essentially only had two. The set was entirely made up of Commons and Uncommons, but each card could be featured on its sheet multiple times. The Uncommon cards that appeared on the Uncommon sheet only once were basically the Fallen Empires version of a rare. Booster packs were eight cards, with two Uncommons and six Commons, so it was possible to get a pack were none of your Uncommon cards were equivilent to a real rare card.
With the glut of boosters on the market, Fallen Empires was often sold for a dollar a pack. I was a brand-new Magic player in the mid-nineties, and I remember Fallen Empires very well. The cards just had cheap reputation, and we usually avoided buying them. Even as a young high school kid, we felt that the dollar we could spend on Fallen Empires was just wasted. Of course, sometimes we bought packs of it when all we could find was couch change, just to try to get that cardboard fix.
Today we're going to look at some of the highlights from Fallen Empires, but first let's take a look at the low-lights!
The Dreck
There were some real stinkers in Fallen Empires, and many of the cards were just obviously terrible. I love the art and border on old cards, but that's not enough to save these from the bulk bins.
One major problem with a lot of the cards is that they were over-costed or underpowered. The early years of Magic had some powerful creatures and spells, and a lot of the Fallen Empires cards seemed to do similar things albeit in a poorer fashion.
For instance, Soul Exchange can reanimate a creature for only two mana. Reanimation is a powerful strategy, but Magic players already had Animate Dead and Hell's Caretaker during that era, both of which were just better.
Some of the cards from the set were actually decent, but they had a functionality that would work better in a Sealed Deck or Draft format. Icatian Infantry and Icatian Javeleneers are not the worst one drop creatures, but beyond a White Weenie strategy they're pretty useless. There was also an abnormally high number of "Squires" in the set (1/2's for one mana); apparently Grizzly Bears were too strong or something.
Giant Creatures!
Most of the expensive creatures were far more costly than fearsome. Deep Spawn, the big daddy of the sea, is an eight mana 6/6. Ebon Praetor and Hand of Justice seemed so cool to me in my youth, but nostalgia won't get you far in a competitive match.
In my opinion, the best thing about this group of creatures is the fact that Ebon Praetor looks like the black spy from Spy Vs Spy. I'm also quite fond of the random bunny rabbit in the picture; art directors don't allow random animals on Magic cards anymore.
Hand of Justice seems like it at least has some potential in a casual format. Being able to tap a few tokens to destroy your opponent's creature is pretty neat. It's also not an ability that seems like it would go on a white creature, but I'm not complaining.
Homarids, Thallids, and Thrulls, Oh My!
Fallen Empires featured a few of the more popular Magic tribes such as Goblins and Merfolk, and a few of the tribal-related cards ended up being playable. On the other hand, the tribal theme of the set was expressed in some less-memorable ways.
Homarids are lobster creatures. They're about as cool as you'd imagine. Unless you have an abnormal fascination with Dr. Zoidberg from Futurama, you're probably not going to be that impressed by playing a lobster monster aggro deck. The namesake creature Homarid hits a homerun as far as flavor goes; it represents the natural cycle of ocean tides. Unfortunately the playability of the card suffered greatly.
In Fallen Empires red was given a few Goblins, but there was also Orcs and Dwarves. Orc and Dwarves are definitely fantasy creatures, so they at least seemed at home in the imaginary wizard battles the game represents, The problem with Dwarves and Orcs is that they never got enough support to be a viable tribe. For instance, the closest thing to a lord the Dwarves had was Dwarven Lieutenant. There was also a theme of tribal conflict in the set, represented by cards like Dwarven Soldier.
Thallids were somewhat of a fan-favorite, although they were never actually very good. I know that a lot of people, including myself, tried to make decks with these creatures. Even with all of the best possible Thallids you could get, the decks were just glacially slow and relegated to kitchen table casual.
Give me ten more turns and I'll have an army!
Thrulls were kind of cool in a heavy-metal kind of way. They were dark and ominous sacrifical creatures created in Breeding Pits. As interesting as these creatures were, it is quite possible that the best use for them was food for Lord of the Pit.
The Heavy Hitters
Even though Fallen Empires didn't have any valuable cards, that doesn't mean that it was all bad. There were plenty of cards in the set that were good, and even a few that have withstood the test of time. It's important to remember that the reason that the rare cards weren't valuable is that the set was vastly over-printed. If the tournament-playable cards hadn't oversaturated the market, they'd probably fetch a decent price.
Hymn to Tourach
Hymn to Tourach is still a playable card in Legacy, and it has seen some Vintage play. Typically, targeted discard like Duress and Thoughtseize are the gold standard, but as far as brute power goes, Hymn is the best discard spell ever. Mind Twist may be able to hit more cards, but Hymn is more efficient.
I've played Hymn to Tourach in Legacy BUG Delver, and it has even seen play in Vintage Dark Times before. It's a deadly card to get hit with because the discard is random. If you're especially unlucky you can even lose lands from your hand, which typically can't be removed via discard. For this reason Hymn seems to pair well with Wasteland decks.
Goblin Grenade
Goblin Grenade does a ton of damage, and it's playability hinges on how good Tribal Goblins are in any given environment. Sure, you're two-for-one'ing yourself, but five damage for one mana is a terrific rate. I like to think of Goblin Grenade as the tribal version of Fireblast or Shrapnel Blast. Goblin Grenade is part of the reason that tribal Goblins was popular well before such decks were tournament-viable
High Tide
High Tide was a useless card for a few years, and then people figured out that you could use the instant as a mana engine in a combo deck. High Tide combo was basically a Tolarian Academy combo deck but with Islands and High Tide replacing the artifact mana base of the Academy decks. By using Time Spiral, Mind over Matter, and Turnabout, the High Tide deck was eventually able to cast a lethal Stroke of Genius.
The Pump Knights
Necropotence is banned in Legacy and restricted in Vintage for its combo enabling potential. Before it was wrecking people in Donate decks, Necro ruled tournament Magic in the summer of 1996. The idea was that you could leverage the massive card advantage of Necropotence to run over your opponent with efficient creatures and disruptive spells.
Necro decks used Hymn to Tourach to decimate their opponents, and they often beat down with the black "Pump Knights". White had an analagous creature known as Order of Leitbur,
The Pump Knights were named as such because you could "pump up" their power. The cards were great because they were efficient compared to the other creatures available in that era. Plus, late in the game they could make use of extra land drops that would otherwise be wasted.
Conclusion
Even though Fallen Empires had a lot wrong with it, I think that it's important to remember that it was released at a time where Wizards of the Coast was still new. There were plenty of cards and concepts in Fallen Empires that were good ideas, but the problems with distribution and development ultimately cast the set in a negative light.
The best way to look at Fallen Empires is that it had some good cards, but they were just all incredible easy to open. The lack of chase cards added to the low-budget feel of the set; after buying a very small number of packs players had enough of what they needed to stop opening packs.
The legacy of Fallen Empires is that Wizards of the Coast and their retailers now have a better understanding of how to produce and order product. No set since then has had so much unwanted stock leftover after the set's initial lifespan. Fallen Empires was also the first time that a tribal theme had been a major focus of a set, and people enjoyed it enough that it has come back many times since then.
In the past few years Magic: the Gathering has released sets that have revisited planes and settings from past expansions. I think it's high time that Magic revisits the setting of sets like Fallen Empires. I think that with the knowledge and expertise that R&D has they could make a killer set with all the interesting flavor that Fallen Empires had.
